First Curio

Time seemed to have passed but what escaped Rayzen's senses was whether an eternity was consumed in his blackout or a mere instant.

As his eyes opened to an incomprehensible sight, he tried his maximum to observe and find answers.

Everywhere his eyes went, he felt that the darkness was staring back at him. Darkness that seemed to have been birthday by a void.

In this 'void', he could vaguely make out three lightly dimmed spheres. Once he spotted them, he felt a line being connected between him and one of the objects. Contrary to the mythical red strings of fate, it was a bright blue line that started forming a visible connection along the ethereal line.

Under an energy that he felt resembled chakra, produced from his 'body', the bright blue line enveloped the ethereal line and touched the sphere. Bright green light flared from the sphere and the sphere disappeared along with the line. The void returned to its initial calmness and he could only see two spheres now, instead of three.

Just as the sphere disappeared, Rayzen felt something being bounded to his existence. Apart from that, he felt lethargic, drained of energy. But that didn't stop what followed. He was again pulled into another void, and what he saw seemed like a visualisation of something he read in a particular novel.

A large dark space, with various specks of light in varying brightness scattered about. In this space he could vaguely make sense of something in the center of the area occupied by the specks of light. Suddenly, lights of different colours flared and he was sent out.

Rayzen opened his eyes and saw that he was in the master bedroom. He also felt Asami hugging him. As the warm smile on his face from seeing such a scene faded in a minute, he slowly got out of her grasp and went to the backyard. He laid down on the makeshift bed and looked at the waning moon. He started thinking about the bizzare things he seem to have experienced earlier.

' Isn't it, similar to the... Magic Cube from Martial Worl... '

His thoughts came to a halt as he let out a painful groan.

" Ugh!!?"

Rayzen suddenly felt his mind was being invaded. It felt as though a heavy hammer had suddenly struck down on his head viciously. He let out a small cry and just after gritted his teeth, and tried hard to not make any sound, in the face of the piercing pain. He didn't want to wake up Asami and scare her into a state of panic.

He could barely resist, the thing desperately trying to invade his mind. He felt it was trying to devour him and from what he remembered about the souls in the Magic Cube, he understood that it was the instinctive nature of the soul specks that was hell-bent on devouring his soul.

Rayzen had very few options to try, so he calmed down instantly, and tried to circulate his chakra, despite the skull piercing pain. He barely made a circulation, and felt a bit better. So he continued doing so, until the pain slowly became manageable, at which point he noticed his spiritual energy slowly increasing along with his chakra, though the improvement in physical energy was not substantial.

Once the pain stopped, Rayzen instantly checked what he gained from the soul speck. He was ecstatic to see that he got:

1. Physical Training Stage Formula – Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians

2. Overbearing Soul Tactic

3. Basic Impurity Cleansing Technique

He didn't have enough endurance to look more into his newly gained memories and soon fell unconscious.

..

Rayzen woke up next day feeling refreshed in body and mind. It was still 5 am and Asami was not yet awake. He slipped backed into bed and cuddled Asami as he pretended to sleep.

' I am going to hell! Hehe...'

Contrary to his thoughts he just fell asleep under a sense of security and warmth. And he was later woken up by her.

The day went by as usual, with Rayzen telling Asami about yesterday. Most of the things he learnt from his Uncle had to be kept secret. So, he just talked about having chakra unlocked and even the fact he unlocked Sharingan had been kept secret, since he was told to do so. And he had to also tell her that the headband covering his eyes is ordered to be never taken off, unless he is alone.

Even though Asami had her doubts, she couldn't bear Rayzen's depressing mood of the previous day, hence didn't look much into the issue. She gave him tips about training and being a ninja and send him off to Takeshi for the daily training.

....

Rayzen was warmly received by Arisu and when he greeted her formally, he was scolded and was asked to call her Mother. Rayzen had no problem, even though he had a hard time equating her figure to a mother, but her warm feelings made his simple mind concede. He played along with the sisters till they stopped pestering him and went to the backyard for training with Takeshi.

For the first day, Rayzen was taught hand-signs and how chakra moved when using them, and, basic taijutsu and work-out exercises suitable for his age. After he was exhausted and Takeshi called it a day, Rayzen found from Takeshi that he had an endurance much worse than an average child of his age, but for not damaging the body he was told to restrict the training to levels his body could handle.

It was planned that as his body adapted to the training and develop more potential or growth space with age, then the training will advance along with it. At the end of the day, he also got to know from his uncle that he had the chakra reserve of an average Genin which was in stark contrast with his physique.

Rayzen felt the problem with his physique, might be due to a possible genetic instability resulting from having both Hyuga and Uchiha genes, in turn, having atleast quarter of a 'pale white' alien's genes.

Takeshi brought an exhausted Rayzen out from his world of thoughts as he said : " Train diligently, so that you can proudly announce your identity one day."

Rayzen nodded and later asked : " Can I practice at home every working days? I'll come here on all week days. "

Takeshi sighed as he replied : " It's fine. But your aunt and the kids will miss you everyday.... Anyway you can train at home, but if you slack, you won't be allowed such concessions in the future! Also, you can't go out of clan compounds without my supervision."

Rayzen knew that his uncle saw him as his own son and was not into displaying affection. He took the warnings seriously and he made the request that he kept suppressed till then: " Can my mother... I mean Asami, go back to being a kunoichi?"

Takeshi thought for a few seconds and then replied sternly: " I'll accept your request, but you have to be a Genin first and have the combat strength of the same."

Rayzen happily nodded, it was the same as before, he need to prove his strength to make demands. Rayzen played along with the sisters and left for home after eating lunch.

On reaching home, he shared the news with Asami, who was happy to have a chance. Both of them made plans to train early, every day. After a small celebration and having some deserts, Asami went to train in the backyard, while Rayzen was in the master bedroom, as he seriously went through the things he gained from the cube on the previous day.